Eva Moskowitz, the combative CEO of the Success Academy charter school chain (previously called Harlem Success Academy), anticipates that new Mayor Bill de Blasio may charge rent for her use of public space or may deny some of the co-locations offered in the waning days of the Bloomberg administration. Moskowitz enjoyed preferential treatment when Michael Bloomberg was mayor and had immediate access to Chancellor Joel Klein. Those days are over, as de Blasio has pledged to review all future co-locations and to consult with local communities.

Moskowitz issued a statement promising to take her battle for more schools and more funding to Albany, where she has friends in the Legislature and in Governor Cuomo. According to a report by Geoffrey Decker in Chalkbeat, charter advocates–some of whom are on the board of Eva’s chain–have contributed more than $800,000 to Cuomo. Eva will bring busloads of students to Albany with her to impress the Legislature, something that no public school would be permitted to do. In addition, a charter advocacy group called Families for Excellent Schools will mount a multi-million dollar TV campaign to block de Blasio’s efforts to rein in the charter movement.

Charters in New York City enroll 6% of the pupil population. Many have smaller proportions of students with disabilities and English language learners than public schools, and some charters are known for suspending or expelling students they don’t want, then not accepting new students to take their places.

Secret Tapes that openly show caring administrators advocating for a student to be in a school with more funding for their special needs?! We call this proper resource allocation. Why would you want your kid in a public school which is denied federal funding for special needs when one with tremendous funding is in the same building?

SA use to put aside 20% of thier blind admissions lottery for ELL but federal laws forced them to stop. You blame them not the law.

As for the Thrive or Transfer nonsense I think this line from your link states it best:

“……….Indeed, Ms. Sedlis cited figures from the city Education Department’s Web site showing that the attrition rate is lower at the Harlem Success schools than at traditional public schools in the same district……….”

So, thrive or transfer, only that SA has more kids thrive and less transfer!!! LOL….

With a few, shining exceptions, this entire page reads like a script from a poorly-written sitcom in which the actors don’t even know what the show is supposed to be about. Many who have weighed in on this, Diane definitely included, are talking about the wrong topics, asking the wrong questions.

Regarding Eva and the SA program: I do not know Eva Moskowitz personally, I can’t speak to her values or ultimate goals, but I know that the schools she has started are superior to the average DOE school in NYC. Everyone knows of the educational superiority, but let’s spend a moment on the nutritional superiority. Anyone recall the “pink slime”? Otherwise known as “finely textured beef”, otherwise known as cow scraps soaked in ammonia…DOE schools were feeding that to children. Let that sink in. At the SA schools the food is not perfect, but it is a huge step in the right direction. What does this mean? It means that finally, someone has taken the initiative (for personal gain or not, at this stage I do not care) to create schools in NYC that are not only free but of good quality, and that quality transcends the mere academic. Finally, someone has realized that our children deserve more than a finely textured beef patty and a mediocre curriculum. No doubt, the rules and regs of SA schools are not for every parent, not for every student…but that’s the beauty of choice! No one wants to shutter DOE schools, we just want to keep SA schools up and running: we want a choice. The entire operation is a process, as in, not perfected but busily unfolding. Anyone who really wants to help, anyone who truly cares about the education of the next generation will weigh in constructively. SA schools are not perfect, but they are proof that improvement is possible! So help us improve!

Regarding the chatter about funding and space and all that blah blah: WRONG CONVERSATION. Instead of talking about how to divvy up the paltry sums of money available for schools, let’s talk about why we don’t have more money for schools. Could it be the billions of dollars in ordinance we are busily launching at other countries? The multi-million dollar aircraft that deliver that ordinance? The golden parachutes of downtrodden CEOs across the nation? The hundreds of millions we give in “aid” to other countries while we here argue over the scraps? The bank bailout billions?
Get with it people, these “problems” we have are easily fixed, so long as you attack the root and not the branch. Blinders off, please!

Finally, a note for the host of this blog, Diane Ravitch. I am glad you are fomenting discussion of the complex issues surrounding education. I do not need to tell you how vital a good education is to a developing mind. But let me encourage you to step outside the paradigm we have been boxed into for so long, because so much more is possible. What would happen if we, collectively, started clamoring for some REAL changes? Change like spending on education what we spend on “defense”. Change like halting the creeping expansion of the workday/workweek so parents and children might actually get to spend some time together when neither of them is exhausted. Change like paying a good teacher (who has proven themselves effective) what we presently pay people to play games on television. Yes, I am talking about HUGE changes, but what of it? Would they not be changes for the better? These are the things we should be discussing, not the minutiae of renting space for a school or how to allocate a pitiful amount of funding for the education of our children. All that nonsense is smokescreen, covering up the real issues that deserve our attention: the elephants in the room.

She wont just limit access, she will shut the school down if she could. Despite the fact that it is closing the achievement gap between poor minorities in the city and rich white kids in westchester. You see that is irrelevant, the education gap doesnt matter, what matters is that the political-union-educational complex remain in control. That is all this is really about, these people are having their lunch eaten for them and they fear the threat, so they are doing everything in their power to eradciate the threat. This is what power does to maintain itself regardless of right or wrong.

My bet is that It is illegal to charge rent to public schools to give to other public schools based on how much they can ‘afford’. Its discrimination. Why dont we charge ps 58 rent given they receive 1 million dollars a year from the French Government to pay PS261 which cant afford teachers assistants? They have the money, I am sure François Hollande will donate more and hey, Il est pour les enfants!!!

You mean “closing the gap” by counseling out students who don’t perform well on standardized tests? The data is in, given like for liek charters perform about the same as their public counterparts. If charters really wanted to show their “merit”, the lottery would randomly pick out students from the district, not just those whose parents are interested in their kids education (immediately a kind of pre-screening). So lump it.

Sami, the data is in and NYC charters outperform zoned schools by years over a students 12 years of school. To be exact 5 years more educated by attending a charter in Math and 1year in English by gradutaion.

Sami, the IBO just relesae a report showing that NYC public charter schools have LOWER attrition rates than zoned schools. So if public charters are counseling out children, why do they have lower attrition rates then zoned schools? Are zoned schools counseling out even more kids than the charters? I think you need to review your statement as its flat out incorrect.

Lotteries do randomly pick studients, but they will not know the students exist if they dont apply. You realize that students need to do the same thing at zoned schools right? If you dont let them know you live there, they wont know to accept you!

When I read this comments from Eva’s supporters BIll F. and MS, it reminds me of Moonies defending Reverend Moon, or Scientologists defending their cult… you present them with damning evidence like Cynthia has… and well, they just block it from their minds like they’ve been brainwashed and programmed to…. and instead proceed to regurgitate their party line talking points almost verbatim.

Jack: with all due respect for what Lloyd Lofthouse wrote recently, it reminds me of the Maoists I bumped into during an anti-war in Vietnam demo many many years ago.

Several had their red books, fingers inserted at the last point they had read, and one of them responded to an obvious contradiction between two of Mao’s statements by plaintively and earnestly proclaiming “You can’t quote the Chairman against the Chairman.”

The others nodded in agreement.

In all honesty, although I think they were misguided and terribly misinformed I also think they were [feel free to disagree] sincere and idealistic.

Now in the case of Eva Moskowitz and SA, Carrie [below] describes “an army of paid recruiters” and “a high-powered public relations firm” and “a Washington consulting firm”—

They’re just going to sit on their hands and do nothing while their employer or client is [allegedly] being slandered and attacked on this blog?

$tudent $ucce$$ is at stake. So it only makes ₵ent¢ that unpaid sincere ignorance and wayward idealism are far less likely than, shall we say, a defense of expanding edumarket share and securing edudominance by any means necessary.

Notice I wrote “far less likely.” That’s called “probability.” IMHO, it would explain the studiously strange contradictions and embarrassingly farcical claims far better than uninformed commenters who simply aren’t aware of the facts and contexts.

Jack,
Agree…just like the Moonies.
KTA… You are wonderful.
Lets make it a game:
Ill take “expand edumarkets,” for $300
A: Nothing at all, never, ever not one bit.
Q: What is wrong with charter schools. ;-)

Here’s an additional point. Success Academy parents have no choice but to ensure that their children be pawn to Moskowitz’s political theater. Because lessons are being conducted on the bus, any families that miss the bus will get a Saturday Academy because it’s not an excused absense.

If you’ve yet to see the Success Academy Handbook, it’s worth a look. Utterly appalling.

The true significance of this thread, aside from its immediate news value, is that it demonstrates how Eva Moskowitz is running scared: why else would she feel the need to have her trolls spread disinformation so vociferously on this site, something she has not done to this degree before?

She never had to do it, because she had a multi-billion dollar patron at City Hall who gave her everything she wanted. Now, however, the ground is shifting under her feet, her lies and avarice are being exposed, and she’s desperate, despite her support from the city’s Overclass.

Keep trolling, Bill F. And MS: the more and louder you prevaricate, the clearer it becomes that Moskowitz and her fellow money-changers will be driven from the Temple.

I have had the chance to personally visit a Success Academy. I can say, without hesitation, that the school I visited in the Bronx showed as well or better than any school I have every entered (>100). Clearly this is a highly polarized blog – but my hope is that reasonable people can agree that when a school is doing right by kids that that school gets celebrated, regardless of its governance model.

you are missing the point. The charter school choose the crop of students they want (most importantly involved parents) and get preferential treatments. they can lobby, work for profit, and most importantly choose the kids they want to come. public schools have had money taken away from them, threatened to be shut down because of special needs students and or ell students only (the very kids charters are not taking) Class sizes are over 30 in many classes throughout the city and technology is way behind the charter schools donations. This is NOT a equitable public education system, and laws generally have found they need to be. Now the elitist attitude is to spend public school education on generally unwanted curriculums. Steal the money is the movement, but so many people are blinded….it is all so frustrating.

John you have some incorrect statements in your response. NYC Charters can not make a profit by law, they are 501(c) non profit entities. They also receive less in state funding vs zoned schools therefore do not get preferential treatment. They can lobby, and so too can the Teachers Union, which does with greater strength. Public charters also generally have class sizes of 25-30 kids yet can afford 2 teachers instead of 1 that the zoned schools with more funding can afford. Why is that?

Hi Jeremy, Im glad you had that experience, I am a parent of a child in SA. We were in our local zoned school for a year and transfered out to SA and its been the most rewarding experience of our lives. We would have been forced to move to the suburbs if not for SA as the cost of private schools in our area of Brooklyn is prohibitive.

Unofrutnately a great school like SA cant be celebrated by those who wish to tear it down. They fear what SA is doing, by closing the achievement gap outside the friendly confines of the political establishment.

Real change rarely comes from within. We need to fight to protect our kids rights to a free and superior education from those wishing to destroy it which is why we must fight to defend SA.

Free rent. Does that include free utilities? The district has to pay utilities. Co-location means public schools have to share facilities: school libraries, computer labs, office staff. In Los Angeles public schools have lost computer labs, parent volunteer centers, classrooms dedicated to science, playground space, intervention classrooms. Office staff and cafeteria workers do double duty. Do the charters schools help defray expenses? No, they do not. If charter schools are going to receive public funds and space, they need to pay their fair share. Otherwise the public school kids lose and that’s not fair either.

SA gets 6,500 less per student from the state for funding compared to zoned schools. So if your kid leaves a zoned school and goes a floor down to a Success Academy, they get 6.5k less to educate that child in taxpayer funds. Yet they do a better job of educating that child. Yet the failing zoned schools tell us they are ‘underfunded’. Funny how that works isnt it.

In reality charters pay rent already by receiving less in funding, the cost of rent is a subisdy paid by the state. If Deblasio wants to charge them rent, which is most likely illegal as a discriminatory practice, the state should simply increase Success Academies funding to cover the rent. This is what it does for zoned schools to pay for facilities.

What a ridiculous statement. If they’re hurting so badly for funding, explain this:

ABSTRACT: Last year alone, the network spent an astounding $883,119 on “student recruitment” – much of it for glossy flyers mailed to hundreds of thousands of parents; bus stop and Internet ads and an army of paid recruiters to go door-to-door soliciting student applications.

Even other charter schools rarely spend more than a few thousand dollars on student recruitment.

Meanwhile, Moskowitz’s network spent another $1.3 million on what it described as “network events and community outreach.”

It paid $243,150 to SKD Knickerbocker, a high-powered public relations firm, to supplement its own in-house press people, and another $129,000 to a Washington consulting firm founded by President Obama’s chief strategist David Axelrod.

But that wasn’t all that Success Academy spent on marketing itself.

The network’s first seven schools incurred an additional $912,000 “student recruitment” expenditure last year, most of it going to big advertising and branding companies.

That’s comes to more than $3.4 million spent on marketing and drumming up huge numbers of application forms – in just one year.

It is perhaps the most intense campaign to sell a group of charter schools in the history of education.

Carrie, many zoned schools in NYC raise millions via their PTAs for various spending initiatives. Why dont you want to charge them rent?
PS 29 here in Brooklyn has a PTA target of 1 million USD annually. But thats ok right? As long as its a zoned school, but if its a public charter they are ‘rich’ and can afford to pay extra… Some America aye?!

Exactly, Carrie. And why would anyone waste so much money on advertising while claiming to have thousands of students on a waiting list?

The list is bogus. The interest and need are pumped up in order to keep them on track with their yearly expansion goals. Parents have reported that when they apply to one school, their application is applied to all schools in the network, which is about 22 now so each student is counted 22 times.

Also, if they applied last year, charter schools may continue to count them.

Could there be some connection between someone who comments here and claims to have read “the 17 different law suits that the teachers union has filed against Success Academy”—that’s a lot of time and energy and specialized interest!—and, say, those people involved in “student recruitment” and “network events and community outreach” and a high-powered pr firm and a Washington consulting firm?

Shame on me for even mentioning such an outrageous possibility!

After all, given Eva’s $140@student for every $1@student that Carmen makes, I must be insane for even suggesting that NYC charters are ruled by anything but altruism and fair play. [See my extended comments below]

No, we must always remember that the leading charterites/privatizers and their edubully enforcers and accountabully underlings adhere to strict moral guidelines. They remain steadfastly loyal to fundamental Marxist principles governing honesty and fair play:

“Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them…well, I have others.”

Victor, you are flat out wrong, hence your confusing posts that lack truth. Zoned schools can and do raise millions. Out of curiosity, are you ignorant or being willfully ignorant? I would suggest you do some reading so as to not embarass yourself here. I will help your education process a touch with this:

PS87 on the UWS raised 1.57 million bux in 2009-10 and the money was spent on the school.

You are right about one thing, you just dont grasp why its wrong. People donate to programs that are not managed by the city because they want their moneey spent on a specific ideal, not socalized by an untrustworthy politician on other ideals. When mr Wilhelm threatens ot socialize funds from schools and parks, he will only force people to stop donating. The sad fact is this is what Wilhelm is looking for, a forced downward spiral to mediocricy!

We are now up to 18 law suits filed and defeated by Success Academy. Can you say frivilous. The reality is worse than that, its a concerted attempt by the union to bankrupt their opponent and force them to waste millions in lawyer fees. Eva’s lawyers must love the Techers Union!!!

Incorrect, they are not free, they are paid for by lesser funding. Zoned schools get over $21k per child, public charters just $13.5k. The argument for lower funding is that they only receive operational funding and the utility costs are subsidised by the lesser funds.

As for the IBO study, if you read it, which you clearly have not, it adds in over $2,500 in utility costs that charters do not pay to get to their phantom 16.5k number. So based on the IBO, Charters already pay rent and should not be charged it.

Unfortunately for the IBO, their study is utter bunk as it also subtracts the pension liability costs for union schools while magically adding funding to charters. Here are the real facts…

Ignore the the shell game proffered here, folks, and read the report yourself at the link to the Independent Budget Office (IBO) above, as well as this response from IBO to the reply by Save Our States (SOS):

“Answering Back: SOS Report on IBO’s Comparison of Public Funding for Charter & Traditional Schools Doesn’t Make the Grade”

THe IBO answer does not change the fact that the difference in spending per student was wrong in their original report. If you read their response you see that it only effects the net difference, not the acutal funding:

….” formula in state law that determines the allocation to charter schools for each student enrolled includes an amount based on the pension and fringe benefit costs of personnel at traditional schools. So, for example, if the city administration chose to increase the amount spent for pensions each year to more fully reflect future liabilities for staff at traditional public schools, that amount would also go into the formula for charters, thereby increasing the per student allocation for charters as well……”

You see, this means that the funding difference has been cemented and can not change if the state increases zoned school funding, it actually institutionalizes the unfair funding advantage that zoned schools get over public charters. Math is easy, public charters get 13.5k from the state, zoned schools get 21k. The gap is spectuacular, if you add in illegal rent charges, it’s cirminal.

LOL, Farina can make close to 500k and its acceptable even if the results of her schools do not compare with those of Success Academy, but Eva is a greedy thieving wall street cog for getting paid the same. Man you people really do a solid job defining the word Hypocrate.

Once again we see Mrs Ravitch tossing 70,000 public school students in 183 public schools in this city under the bus. Deblasio-Farina-Ravitch and the anti charter movement has one statement for the parents and kids in charter schools……..Drop Dead!!!

MS, the sad truth is Ms. Ravitch has found meaning in life by blindly endorsing teachers’ unions then reveling in the Halleluiah Chorus and speaking engagements that ensue. I imagine there is payback at play here somewhere. This agenda has nothing to do with what is best for children. It’s all about unions. The SA schools have been a godsend to thousands of children and their needs are summarily dismissed because what is best for them is a threat to unions. And the shame of it is we do need someone challenging a lot of the reform agenda. Someone with credibility.

Carrie, you are undedcuated about the facts. Public charter schools in New York State are, by law………Public Schools. Here is the state law. Perhaps if you read it you would not post incorrect statements on this forum……

Now if you believed in democracy, which is based on choice, you would support charters along with zoned schools, not singling out one for the other. Clearly you have an ideologically based view that does not correlate with equality.

Hey MS – try reading up on court documents. And the spelling is “under-educated,” which I am not – nor am I the troll, grifter, or fascist segregationist. Remember the School Choice Movement of the 1950s and the reason public schools were formed in the early 20th century. Please study history. I do – and I believe in democratic institutions and the promise of American public schools unlike you. Good luck to you.

You mean like the court documents on the 17 different law suits that the teachers union has filed against Success Academy that have ALL been successfully defeated? Yeah, I read em and they are frivilous. Why is a union whos job is to collectively bargain for their members suing schools that are not part of their coverage model? Shouldnt they be foucsed on their own members?

MS, the more you stick to the skewed talking points, the more clear it is you are on the dole of Moskowitz (isn’t that the name for a certain German Mickey Mouse?) or part of the army of paid soliciters/PR men of NYC charters.
Can I open an office, for free, on city property if I want to start a business, call myself non-profit to grossly inflate my salary at the expense of not paying taxes or employees, while cherry picking students and lobbying politicians, all with city money, all while not improving the metrics of corporate imposed standardized tests? No, I cannot. Please do your homework or you just look transparent.

nano, your analogy is false, Success Academy is not a business, it is a non for profit 501(c) entitiy. Do you know what those are? It would be a violation of federal and state law for a 501c to turn a profit. You are 0-1. It is also illegal for charters like SA to ‘cherrypick’ students, they hold blind lotteries to accept students with the only weighted factor is proximity to the school. You are 0-2. As for metrics, you are wrong again, they do improve rates for their students. At SA their testing scores were double triple city wide averages and even highier vs the co-located schools they share public space with. So you are now 0-3, we call that a strikeout.

Local politicians are making war on our great public schools, only those in Albany can help at this point. Our militant extremist mayor has clearly sided on the special interest side of the union. He has told 70,000+ kids to drop dead. We must now press our case in Albany for our rights and freedoms that this clown is trying to oppress. You should join the cause, be on the right side of history!!!

We are on the path to self destruction in education.as we were with health care Lets stop fighting and making money, headlines off the lives and future of the next generation. Sound bites are nothing more than a headline which is forgotten when the next stand alone sound bite hits the air waves. Anger is not a policy, being smarter is not a policy, We have failed to learn how to communicate, listen and work together. Lets stop with the insults and get down to the hard work of education we have wasted to much time doing nothing. I support the mayor and want a discussion, there has to be a compromise and a path forward..

That path is only perpetuated when anti choice advocates like Mrs Ravitch consider 170,000 public school kids and their families to be irrelevant. WHy does she want to close charters and force so many kids back into failing schools? Do you think it is because she fears the success that these 6% have produced might turn into 60% and put her special interests out of business?

Standardized test scores are only just that. They are not indicators of procedural knowledge, creativity or problem solving –and they are certainly not indicative of the joy of learning.

You really have to wonder when a parent of a first year student at a charter school like SA has so quickly become an uncritical, stalwart promoter of something that is so new in his child’s life. This is the honeymoon period. Wait until the child has been subjected to rigid discipline and massive test prep year after year. I think very few parents in the know would think test scores are worth years of all that.

This isn’t the 19th Century when snake oil salesmen would sell narcotics under fake anti-cancer treatments. Schools, and much of the rest of society, is professionalized, with regulatory bodies and certifications. This cannot be circumvented by changing labels.
Also, the only people using the word “choice” to conflate democracy with the market are libertarian PR/think tanks.
You have blown your cover; get off this blog….!

Its always laugable when the anti choice movement gets toasted with bad scores at their schools vs great scores at charters and the argument turns against testing as a whole. yet if a zoned school gets great test results all of the sudden that school is amazing and the way of the future. You can not have it both ways despite trying to in theory.

Charter schools do NOT support ELLs,SWDs, and at risk students. Public schools except all of these students and their many problems whether they be academic, behavior, homelessness, etc. Charters should NOT be compared to public. Its so unfair.

Eva’s complaints about space are laughable. If she is truly concerned about serving as many families as possible, she can start by having her schools comply with state law and allow new children to fill the many, many seats lost to attrition in Success’s upper elementary grades.

The last day a new student can enter a Success school is the very first day of third grade. The network’s justification for this permanent, ongoing policy is that incoming students won’t be smart enough or sufficiently prepared to handle a Success school’s rigor. Such a policy is in clear violation of the NYS charter school law, which explicity forbids charters from limiting admissions on the basis of intellectual ability or aptitude, and which requires charters to offer admissions to all grades served.

Until this policy is changed and Success adheres to the clear requirements laid out in the state law, De Blasio should not only reject all future Success co-locations, he should phase out existing Success schools per the Chancellor’s regulations.

Yes, this old chestnut will keep popping up until the schools are in compliance with what is a fairly clear cut state law.

If you’d bothered to read the Success high school EIS on any of the numerous occasions I’ve posted the link, you’d know full well the network has no intention of the changing the policy. You should probably spare me your false optimism and petition your principal and Eva to change the policy before a bunch of people with academically qualified children put together a lawsuit this summer.

Tim, please show me the law that SA is breaking in their admissions pracitces? Show me the law that SA is breaking by capping admissions at 3rd grade? Do your reserach and see that SA once capped admissions at 1st grade, then 2nd, and now 3rd. A day will come when they extend it.

Stuvyesant High School caps their admissions on the first day of 9th grade, is that illegal?

As you have been told repeatedly and continue to ignore, MS, Hunter is a college experimental demonstration laboratory school that was established in 1870, as an integral component of their Teacher Education program, and from 1941 on, it has been specifically for gifted children.

Why does their historical origins change the fact that they only allow students entry at 2 points (2 less than Success Academy)? If you are ok with Hunters admissions policy you can not credibily oppose those of Success, that is, if you care about being consistent or legitimate.

Now, how bout Stuyvesant HS, it only accepts in 9th grade, once. Same with Bronx Science and Brooklyn Tech, where our mayors son interestingly enough goes. They only allow kids in at one entry point and its based on academics, soemthing public charters can not do by law.

You see it’s ok to do what public charters do as long as they are not charters. Yet another double standard.

We’ve been through this at least six times, yet you continue to flail and keep throwing it out there hoping it’ll stick: there is no state law prohibiting districts from operating academically screened schools or programs. There is a state law which prohibits charters from doing so. Really a very simple answer to your vexed question.

Ok Tim, show me the specific text of the law showing that SA is in violation of by not accepting students post 3rd grade. Why cant you just post the law backing up your point? If you are so sure you are corect this should be easy.

The reality is there is no such law. It would be illegal for SA to deny entry in their K-3 process on an academic basis, this is where you are getting confused. SA does not screen applicants on academics however, they have a blind lottery. There is no application process post 3rd grade at this time so your claim that they deny after that point is irrelevant to the law.

For the residents of Planet Reality who visit this blog, The New Charter/Privatizer Math of RheeWorld, or A Lesson in Resisting Rheeality Distortion Fields.

Venality Added Measurement/Venality Added Modeling.

February 1, 2014 comments on this blog in order of appearance, with link below:

[start quote]

MS: Carmen Farina earns about as much as Eva Moskowitz annually but no one minds that. Yet another double standard perpetuated by the anti-choice extremists.

DR: Carmen Farina oversees the education of 1.1 million children

Eva M: 7,000.

Carmen has a 40-year pension.

Eva: $499,000 and she is not an educator.

No spin in this zone.

MS: Yet another double standard. Shocker. Carmen is earning $412,000 a year. Quite a payday, but that is ok, because she is part of the establishment, they have different rules. Only Reformers get criticizm for ‘excessive pay’.

DR: MS: Carmen Farina spent 40 years as an educator. She earned a pension. Now she is chancellor of a system with 1.1 million students.

Eva Moskowitz is a politician, not an educator. She runs a chain of charter schools with 7,000 or fewer students. She is paid $499,000, more than the president of the US. That is ridiculous.

Are you suggesting that their responsibilities are equivalent?

1.1 million is more than 7,000.

MS: I can honestly say I think Eva pays herself too much. It is too much of a political lightning rod to take that kind of salary in my view. I think she earns every penny of it, but given the politics, she should not take that much of a salary IMHO.

[end quote]

Next immediately following comment from February 2, 2014:

COSMIC TINKER: Charter schools are all about the children and union teachers are greedy? That is opposite world.
In NYC, “16 charter school CEOs earn as much as $500,000 a year.”

Eva Moskowitz: $499,000 a year and for the students, a number higher than the oft-repeated 5000, i.e., the above 7000. $499,000/7000 = approx. $71.29@student, which I will round down to $70@student. *Impressed with how “fair and balanced” I am?*

Carmen Fariña: $412,000 a year and for the students, a number lower than the above, 1 million students, proving once again that I am bending over backwards for Eva M., $412,000/1,000,000 = $0.412@student, which I will round up to 50¢@student. *”Fair and balance” am me.*

Now on to the Venality Added Modeling system to see how the two stack up against each other. $70/0.50 = $140. So for every 140 Benjamins that Eva M. is squeezing out of each and every one of her “most precious assets” [thank you, Michelle Rhee!] Carmen F. is getting 1. And they say you can’t measure the quality of venality by a quantity of $tudent $ucce$$?

Señor Swacker, even you must be taken aback by my VAManiacal adroitness. And Robert D. Shepherd, you must admit I’ve handily surpassed every benchmark set by the Potemkin Village metrics of the old Soviet Union. Chiara Duggan, if you gave 50¢ of voice for every $70 worth of choice that the charterites/privatizers bring into play…but I digress.

How can anyone possibly not understand by means of the above hard—we’re talking tempered steel!—data that Eva Moskowitz is worth 140 times more than Carmen Fariña? That Eva M punks Carmen F? That Eva M works 140 times harder, better and more efficiently than Carmen F?

As a noted theologian of the High Holy Church of Testolatry [charterite/privatizer denomination] has declared in no uncertain terms: “Men lie and women lie but numbers don’t.” [Dr. Steve Perry, “America’s Most Trusted Educator,” channeling rapper Jay-Z]

And just notice what Cosmic Tinker pointed out: EduExcellence as measured by the Venality Added Modeling system isn’t just confined to Eva M. It’s everywhere you can find a self-styled leader of the “new civil rights movement” of our time—except, of course, in those pathetic public schools aka factories of failure…

So remember, the next time someone criticizes data-drivel, er, data-driven instruction and management by the numbers and curricular bullet lists, just hit ‘em between the eyes with this indisputable meganumerical bomb—140 to 1 ain’t nothin’ to sneeze at, boobala.

The future is charters and vouchers and privatization because $tudent $ucce$$ is the ₵en¢ible tsunami that will swamp all opposition.

Rheeally!

Although on Planet Reality where Rheeality Distortion Fields don’t function nearly as well as they do on RheeWorld, there is a better than 98% “satisfactory” [thank you, Bill Gates!] chance of certainty that the future belongs to those struggling for a “better education for all.”

Really!

😎

“Laughter is poison to the pompous.”

And a healthy antidote to mathematical intimidation and artless obfuscation and delusional invention…

MS: after the meeting with Farina, all the other charter leaders came away expressing great respect for Farina and looking forward to an era of collaboration. There was apparently a spirit of goodwill, experienced by everyone but Eva Moskowitz. Stop boasting of her great triumphs–as detailed by Rupert Murdoch, who gave her $5 million–and ask yourself why every other charter is willing to work with the public schools and Eva wants to drive them into the sea by turning children into (as her director of instruction put it) “little test-taking machines.” Do you want your child to be a “little test-taking machine” or a fully developed human being?

Diane, you wnat 70,000+ children to be kicked out of their world class schools simply for succeeding. I wonder if you will let the parents of these kids know they have to go back to their failing zoned schools because you dont like their public charters close the achievement gap. I bet that conversation will go well. Farina will be droppoing the bomb in the next few days that some schools approved by the prior administration after years of processing and public input will be stopped from opening. Teachers and administrators hired, space made, children accepted and you are telling them to DROP DEAD!!! You have to live with yourself over this, that must really suck.

All I gotta say, MS, is that I hope Eva is compensating you well for your hard work on her behalf. I take it your kid(s) score high and behave well. You do realize, however, that should either of those things change, Eva will be counseling you out as well, right?

I was pro zoned school, we had our kid in it at first, I said no to the charter. I lived thru the zoned school disaster that tens of thousands of other NY school parents are living thru. I know the facts, ive lived them. The hate campaign against Eva in particular is nonsensical. Its not surprising though, success creates bitterness from those who fail. If SA did not get these great results and pose a threat to the union-political-education complex, no one would care.

Whats really laughable is the anti charter movement thinks Eva creates her schollars in test tubes not grasping the fact that families are demanding her school. It is not a walmart moving in on the cheap, it is a direct RESULT of a specific demand within the community. Instead of attacking her schools success you should take time to learn from it and emulate it.

From the article you link to:
“Students are taught to track the teacher with their eyes and between classes they walk in a single file, holding “air bubbles” in their mouths to keep quiet. :
Would not wish that on my dog.

Steve, that is incorrect, public charter shcools by law must hold blind lotteries, that is the opposite of picking and choosing their students. Charters in NYC by law also must be non-profits. As for ignoring, that is what our new mayor wants to happen, ignore the 70,000+ in 183 charters and thousands trying to get in. They are invisible minority children to the establishment.

Close the achievement gap by closing the schools that are closing the gap. That makes sense to mr Wilhelm. Now you know what sort of threat we have in that office.

My husband left a huge article about Evil Moskowitz (with a very lovely, drawn picture) from a recent Wall Street Journal. Unfortunately, I threw it in the recycling bin w/our other papers, so I can’t give you the link. But it shouldn’t be hard to find.

And I must say, MS, I certainly subscribe to freedom of speech, but I so VERY strongly disagree with your comments. And VERY offended by your comment about her being a “liberal Democrat New York City Jew.” She is NOT a Democrat in any sense of the word, and she is a neoliberal in step with all of the other ones (DFERs) who are, without any doubt, destroying the principles of democracy insofar as U.S. public school education is concerned. I’d be interested in knowing just who you are, who you work for & what your affiliations are. ALEC, perhaps? Success Academy?
The Waltons? Bill Gates?

retiredbutmissthekids, MS has been here many times before saying the same things. Moskowitz opened up a couple schools in higher income areas of Brooklyn and this is a parent of a child who attends one of those charters –wealthy, works in “finance” and this is the child’s first year at the school. The parent has been an ardent promoter from the start and has cited their test scores often. However, the child is a 1st grader, so wait and see what these high income parents have to say after their kids have been there for years and reach the testing age, since many teachers and parents have reported that Success Academy is all about rigid discipline (with high rates of suspension) and massive test prep..

It sounds like this is one of the few parents in the city that actually fell for the ‘raise the cut scores, lower the test results’ ploy that was instituted by NY education “reformers,” in order to promote the failing schools narrative –as Duncan further promoted when he complained about “white suburban moms” after the scores came out.

Teachers at SA have said the reason they think their schools did better than others was because they’ve been doing test prep based on the Common Core (CC) and the assessments included questions covering that, while CC had not yet been addressed in other schools. Since Eva has friends in high places, it’s very likely that she was made aware that the tests would include questions from CC, while other schools were not privy to that info.

NAPST, I am sure coming from schools that do not teach seeing those that do must look like ‘rigid discipline’ but in reality we call it everyday teaching. Stop underestimating our kids, thats the reason why there is such massive demand for public charter schools like Success Academy.

I marvel that the supporters of Eva Moskowitz and SA think it wise to ask for more shovels and dig ever more furiously when finding themselves in a deep hole, but you have to admire their misplaced admiration for something one of those old dead Greek guys said:

“Honesty is for the most part less profitable than dishonesty.” [Plato]

Don’t hold your breath for remuneration from Moskowitz. That would be like the GOP paying Ted Cruz for stating their case. All the hyperbole and twisted logic makes party people wince and cringe, not grateful.

No one with any sense wants to be represented by a zealot from the lunatic fringe who expresses bizarre beliefs and staunch allegiances, and who does not demonstrate critical thinking skills. Repeating the same inane things again and again, in long-winded nonsensical diatribes, despite mounds of evidence presented to the contrary, is a huge tell that the person is a stalwart fanatic and incapable of learning anything about such matters. When he constantly then turns around and pats himself on the back for his tirades, in puerile na-na na-na boo-boo fashion, it’s very clear he has absolutely no clue that he comes off like an immature and gullible fool.

And the other team gets a good, hearty laugh out of it all. Better keep your day job.

NAPST says………”No one with any sense wants to be represented by a zealot from the lunatic fringe who expresses bizarre beliefs and staunch allegiances, and who does not demonstrate critical thinking skills. ”

Sounds like our new mayor you are speaking of. I guess you did not vote for him.

I am from a minority neighborhood and I have experienced bad teachers and the teachers who do not care. You may not like Eva but they are doing a great job with the kids and my child loves the school. I know a ton of African American and Latino men who dropped out of school because the teachers and the public school education was horrible. Also, let’s cover the bathrooms, food that is served to students, pedophile teachers and lack of school supplies.

I highly recommend that you think before you write these things about Charter Schools because unlike Eva I can bring the proof in the form of men who were failed by the public school systems.

I can call your bluff.

P.S. Here is a video that everyone on this site should read created by African American / Latino men with no outside influence. I would love to see your response to this Diana.

I can only hope that you mistakenly posted your comments on the wrong blog because the owner of this website and the vast majority of those who post comments here are for a “better education for all” — period. That’s why we are so highly critical of public schools and charter schools and any others that don’t provide the kind of learning and teaching environment that they should.

To imply otherwise—and to write “I can call your bluff”—

A small piece of advice. Give respect to get respect. You are doing nothing but gutting your own POV.

Thanks for your comments Mike. Unfortunately this forum is filled with people who will never accept the truth nor reality of what Eva and Success is doing. However, its great to see some real people without ideological blinders on posting from the center. I hope you keep posting here and encourage others who support our great school to do so.

Politicians created the shameful school to prison pipeline, not educators, and it’s a very lucrative enterprise for the government, as well as for privatizers, particularly due to the failed “War on Drugs.”

“…in a growing number of states you’re actually expected to pay back the cost of your imprisonment. And paying back all these fees, fines and court costs may be a condition of your probation or parole. And then if you’re one of the lucky few, the very few who even manages to get a job straight out of prison, up to 100 percent of your wages can be garnished to pay back all those fees, fines, court costs.”

It’s tragic when people of color think the best education is for their children to be treated in military style no-excuses charter schools by drill sergeant teachers as if they are recalcitrant beasts who need to be tamed. That’s precisely why students call KIPP the Kids in Prison Program –and much of what they do at KIPP has been adopted by other no-excuses charters as well, including SA.

Wow. So many insults, lies and ludicrous statements thrown out here by MS and then come the next batch of Eva supporters. These are the big guns? Very sad stories but it’s no contest. Rigid military style discipline and test prep are not the secret sauce. Moskovitz is way out of her league.

I believe in making New York a better place for the next generation, that is why I am taking my daughter to Albany in support of Success Academy. I am a native New Yorker and a small business owner who believes in working hard to make life better. My daughter and I will do just that on tuesday in Albany.

Not a Public School Teacher & Other Spaces: since the owner of this blog is an historian, a little perspective might help—

“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” [Mahatma Gandhi]

Hmmmm…

We’re in the third stage now. And it is fair to ask: “These are the big guns?”

Yes, when political enablers at the highest levels and a fawning compliant MSM and hundreds of millions of dollars aren’t enough and legions of educrats and edufrauds and edubullies can’t seem to do the trick—

They’re stumped and fall back on sneers and jeers and fantastical invention. Why? Because they have no confidence in the “power of their ideas.”

MS, you seemed to be very disturbed, and not because of the supposed callousness of Diane Ravitch and others, but rather from the fact that many don’t lay down their cloaks for Eva and kiss her rings.
Eva has made clear on several occasions that she will not educate just anyone. She picks and massages the ones she deems worthy to come to her schools. If your mental well being is threatened by any criticism of her, her tactics and her expenses, I would suggest seeking professional help from a psychologist and a psychiatrist.
Or a priest.
God bless and I will keep you in my prayers.

Diane is attempting to marginalize 70,000+ children at 183 schools by calling them ‘just 6%’. Translation: Go to hell kids and parents. This is the sort of militant rhetoric we now face with our crony mayor workign for the UFT and their talking points memo mouthpieces like Diane and Juan Gonzalez amongst the rest of the MSM that supports the political-union-educational complex. I get it, they represent the establishment, establishments will go to extreme lengths to maintain their power which we are seeing here. The sad reality is that this establishments power has lead us to this point and put our kids in this situation where they can not learn at traditional schools en mass. If Mr Wilhelm cared about closing the achievement gap like he claims, he would not try to close the schools which are actively closing that gap!

Mark Twain said it best…”Nothing is more annoying than a good example”

The blog was quite disturbing. There is a clear disregard of parents choice. The disregard is offensive. I want better options for my daughter than what the DOE offers in my zoned schools. My daughter deserves better education. Give me options and I will make decisions as a parent on what benefits my child academically. Give me the options and the tools to allow my child to soar. My only option is SACH, because it is the right option.

Diane Ravitch and her supporters’ “intent” is not about public schools supposed inequity and all Public Charter Schools. Theirs is a personal attack on Eva and what her vision represents…”change”

People hate change and will justify why the old way is better, albeit how inadequate or ineffective it is.

I am not a political person in anyway, but I see an inequity in their stance against my choice. And I will fight for my right to choose the best effective and productive educational option for my daughter. Parents always want better for their children. WHAT is wrong with that?

I live where the impact is felt on a daily basis none of you come to the poor neighborhoods and help out if you did me and my friends would know you. I showed them this blog last night and we laughed because we all know how bad public education is across the board. I give Eva credit she has accepted a lot of the kids from the bad neighborhoods and has given them a chance. I have yet to see a public school really care about its minority population.

As a matter of fact I am going to invite a lot of minority people to this website so we can all laugh at you. This blog is a sham do something to help minority kids across the board charter schools are one outlet and public schools should be the other but the teachers in public schools need to step up their game and stop molesting the little kids..

Parents of SA kids — I don’t doubt that you have had an incredible educational experience at Success. But just because these schools are good for you and your child, does not mean that they are good for the kids of NYC as a whole.

The fact is, you are involved parents who are ready to fight for YOUR CHILD’s right to an education. While you put your kids into SA schools, all the kids whose parents don’t care enough to fight for them are left behind in the district schools. Along with all the kids who can’t go to SA because they have significant special needs. And the kids whose parents care but can’t follow all of SA’s rules for families. And the kids who have trouble with the strict disciplinary style at the schools. Maybe you don’t care about those other kids, but many of us do.

On another note, I know you probably don’t mind the months of test prep that your kids do before the state tests, because your other school options are so terrible. But the next time your child’s teacher or principal tells you that SA outscored Scarsdale, remember that the Scarsdale kids got those scores without hours of filling in bubble sheets (“Slam the Exam”). When your child can get a 3 or a 4 without all that test prep, then you can say she goes to a truly excellent school.

I used to work at Success, by the way, and I wanted very much to believe that it was changing the world for the better. Unfortunately, it’s not as simple as that.